2023
October - Welcome Shivam Kalhan, the newest Postdoc Fellow to our Janak Lab Familia!!!!
August - Our very own Emma Chaloux-Pinette receives her Doctorate in Neuroscience and is off to complete the remainder of her Medical Degree at Johns Hopkins Hospital! Congrats Emma!!!
May - Samantha and Aneesh officially got their Master’s degrees! Additionally, Aamna passed her qualifying exam and is now our newest PhD candidate! Congrats to you all for being such high achievers and making it through these incredible milestones!
April - Our very own Robin Magnard and Yifeng Cheng give talks at the Baltimore Brain Series! Congrats to you both!
Sam and Laia help organize and host the 2023 Baltimore Brainfest! This wonderful event occurs annually and is geared towards educating the youth about science and the nervous system in fun and interactive ways. You can learn more about upcoming Brainfest events at www.brainfest.org.
February - Matilde Castro received her Notice of Award for her NRSA F31 application to NIAAA!!
2022
June - Eric Garr received an NRSA F32 fellowship from NIDA!
October - Matilde Castro wins BEST POSTER at the Alcohol Gordon Research Conference. Additionally, our very own Laia Castell was nominated as the next Alcohol GRS chair! Congrats to you both!
2019
September - Eric and Céline join the lab for their postdocs, welcome Eric and Céline!
August - Kurt presents at the Amygdala GRS + GRC and is elected chair of the 2021 Amygdala GRS! Tricia chairs the 2019 Catecholamines GRC, David gives a talk at the Catecholamines GRS, Kurt and David present at the Catecholamines GRC, and David is elected chair of the 2021 Catecholamines GRS! Congrats David and Kurt! Youna wins a travel award and presents at EBPS 2019 in Portugal!
July - Jocelyn and David publish their paper on changes in ventral pallidal encoding of alcohol cues! Robin joins the lab for his postdoc, welcome Robin!
June - Céline is awarded a Kavli NDI Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow Award. Congrats Céline!
May - Undergraduate Fiona Pat receives the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Summer Research Program Award to conduct research with Kurt over the summer. Congrats Fiona!
April - Kurt publishes a review with Peter Holland on the hierarchical control of behavior.
March - David presents at Cosyne 2019 in Portugal!
February - Kurt receives a travel award to attend Winter Brain and presents a poster and chairs and speaks in a panel, also wins a poster presentation prize! Yifeng joins the lab for his postdoc, welcome Yifeng!
January - Kurt receives notice that his F31 NRSA fellowship is funded! Ron’s paper on distinctions in error-based learning supported by different dopamine neuron populations is published! Congrats Kurt and Ron!
2018
December - We say goodbye to Ronald as he leaves to start his own laboratory at the University of California Santa Barbara. Best wishes Ron, we will miss you!
November - The lab presents at the Society for Neuroscience Meeting in San Diego, CA. Kurt wins a Trainee Professional Development Award from SfN to attend the conference - congrats Kurt!
October - Emma joins the lab as a graduate student after her rotation - welcome Emma! David’s paper on ventral pallidal encoding of reward preference published! David attend the Janelia Mechanistic Cognitive Neuroscience workshop for junior scientists.
August - Tabitha passes her qualifying exam - congrats Tabitha!
July - Tricia presents at the Gordon Research Conference on Optogenetics. Tricia and Youna present at the EBPS workshop on Computational Approaches to Animal and Human Behavior. Ben’s paper on distinct forms of conditioned motivation supported by differing populations of dopamine neurons is published! Congrats Ben!
June - David wins a Chen Travel Award and attends the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Brains & Behavior. Kurt receives the Robert S. Waldrop Junior Investigator Award. Congrats David and Kurt! The lab takes the train to Princeton to present at the CAMAL meeting where Kurt and Youna give talks.
May - We say goodbye to Ben and Jocelyn as they head off to start their own laboratories at the University of Minnesota as a part of the Minnesota Discovery Team on Addiction. We also say goodbye to Alex who is off to start her PhD studies at Wayne State University. Good luck Ben, Jocelyn, and Alex and we will miss you! Chan joins the lab - welcome Chan!
March - Jocelyn, Kurt, and Tricia attend and present at the Gordon Research Conference on Alcohol and the Nervous System. Tricia is elected vice-chair of the conference in 2020! Jocelyn’s paper on the encoding of reward-seeking in the ventral pallidum is published - congrats Jocelyn!
2017
December - The lab attends the first Bloomberg Distinguished Professor holiday party. Ben and Jocelyn present at the annual ACNP meeting. Youna and Tricia publish a review on habits!
November - The lab "travels" (took the MARC train) to the Society for Neuroscience Meeting in Washington, DC. Tricia speaks in a symposium on reward and aversion while the rest of the lab presents all at once in a session on Motivation and Reward.
October - Ron, Jocelyn, Ben, and Kurt travel and present at the Pavlovian Society Meeting in Philadelphia. Tricia speaks at the Brain Prize Meeting in Denmark!
September - Kurt receives a Special Opportunities for Undergraduate Learning Course Award to develop and teach an independent course for freshmen and sophomores to get them interested and engaged with neuroscience. Congrats Kurt! Youna’s paper on a new model to assess habitual behavior is published!
August - Tricia, Ron, Jocelyn, Ben, and Kurt travel to the GRC meeting on Catecholamines. Jocelyn gave a talk at the GRS and Ben was selected to speak during the conference! Kurt’s paper on contributions of dopamine in the striatum to cue-motivated behavior is published!
July - Kurt passes his qualifying exam - congrats Kurt!
June - David passes his qualifying exam - congrats David! We say goodbye to Heather and Deanna as they start new endeavors.
May - Kurt receives the Walter L. Clark Service Award from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences! Flavia takes a position as a staff scientist at NIDA and we wish her the best!
March - David is selected to receive the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and Kurt receives an honorable mention! Great news! Congrats David and Kurt!
2016
December - Ben and Jocelyn attend the ACNP annual meeting, where Jocelyn was selected to receive the Harry June Travel Award.
November - The lab travels to San Diego for the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting. Jocelyn is selected to present at the NIDA/NIAAA Early Career Investigator showcase! Ben, Youna, and Jocelyn all present posters, Kurt and David "network", and Tricia held a "Meet the Expert" talk. Youna gives a talk in the Baltimore Brain Series at the University of Maryland!
October - Jocelyn was selected to attend the HHMI Junior Scientist Workshop on Neural Circuits and Behavior at Janelia Research campus! Ron presents at the annual Pavlovian Society meeting! Jocelyn gives a talk in the Baltimore Brain Series at the NIDA IRP!
September - Tricia, Youna, Ben, Jocelyn, and Kurt travel to Dopamine 2016 in Vienna, Austria. Jocelyn was selected to give a talk in one of the sessions, Tricia delivers a plenary lecture, and Youna and Ben present posters (Kurt networked a lot!). A good time is had by all! Ben and Tricia also attended and presented at the HHMI Action Selection Across the Animal Kingdom meeting at Janelia Research Campus. David receives the Lasker Foundation Essay Contest prize!
August - Tabitha Kim joins the lab as a new graduate student in the PBS department. Welcome Tabitha!
July - Alex joins the lab as a new technician - welcome Alex!
June - Jocelyn and Tricia chair a symposium at the annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in New Orleans. David finishes his rotations and decides to join the lab as a graduate student - welcome David! Heather joins the lab as a new technician - welcome Heather!
May - Jocelyn publishes two papers! One on the role of mu-opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens shell in alcohol-drinking behaviors and one on ventral pallidal neuronal encoding of reward-cue evoked behaviors. Kurt has a commentary published in the Journal of Neuroscience!
April - Amy leaves us to head off to the University of Minnesota where she will pursue a DDS/PhD dual degree and will be missed.
March - Ron receives a prestigious Dean's Teaching Fellowship to teach a new course in the upcoming academic year on the psychobiology of addiction! Undergraduate Anne Armstrong receives the Provost's Research Scholarship to conduct summer research on stress and alcohol drinking behaviors!
February - Jocelyn presents a poster the Alcohol & the Nervous System Gordon Research Conference in Galveston.
2015
December - Ben presents a poster at the ACNP annual meeting and won a prestigious travel award to do so - congrats Ben!
October - Most of the lab attends SfN in Chicago. Ben, Zayra, and Kurt present posters during the conference.
September - Ben and Jocelyn are both recipients of NARSAD Young Investigator Awards!
August - Kurt joins the lab as a graduate student!
February - Youna joins the lab as a postdoc!
January - Ben and Jocelyn make the move to Baltimore.
2014
August - Janak Lab moves to Johns Hopkins! Ron and Zayra move to Baltimore and Amy and Flavia start in the lab.